Who are we ?
Founded in 2008, Lab’Urba has become one of the leading research units in the Greater Paris region dedicated to cities and territories. Its significance stems both from its community — the lab hosts 130 members, including faculty, PhD students, temporary teaching and research staff (ATERs), postdoctoral researchers, and affiliated scholars — and from the recognition of its contributions to urban research. Located at the heart of the Cité Descartes and its urban-focused cluster, Lab’Urba benefits from a scientifically dynamic and internationally renowned environment.
Four defining features shape the identity and uniqueness of Lab’Urba:
1) Urban Collective Action as a Core Research Focus
Lab’Urba views the production of urbanised spaces — whether in metropolitan areas, rural settings, or small and medium-sized towns — as the result of three interconnected fields of action:
The redevelopment and recycling of urban environments,
The uses and everyday practices of these environments,
The management of their effective functioning.
These dimensions may be the outcome of intentional and organised collective action, framed by policies, standards, and procedures. Such action relies on cooperation and coordination, involving both public and private tools, and draws on key activities like public policymaking, urban planning, urban design, and management. At the same time, these dimensions are shaped by informal collective action, emerging from the everyday practices of city dwellers — whether as individuals or social groups. Lab’Urba’s scientific project focuses on these various forms of collective urban action, explored under two main angles:
The stakeholders involved, their interactions and decision-making processes, the tools they use, and their representations.
The impacts of these actions on urban environments, on socio-technical and socio-ecological urban systems, and on the spatial and social organisation of cities and territories.
These research perspectives apply to a broad range of topics, including:
Long-standing areas of expertise at Lab’Urba, such as housing (living conditions, housing supply) and land (land value, land recycling, density, land-use sobriety).
More recently consolidated themes like socio-spatial inequalities (including gender), public health (ageing, health-oriented urban planning, health geography), and the interaction between urban planning and environmental change (climate adaptation, resilience, energy crises), as well as migration.
Emerging topics such as nature in the city, circular waste management, the productive city, the evolving relationship between housing, work, and mobility, urban agriculture, and food systems.
Social, health, ecological, and climate-related challenges are embedded in nearly all of Lab’Urba’s research endeavours.
2) An Interdisciplinary Research Practice
From the outset, Lab’Urba has promoted interdisciplinarity, which has only deepened with recent recruitment cycles. These have strengthened the lab’s appeal and enriched its team, which includes architects, ecologists, economists, geographers, geomatics specialists, historians, legal scholars, engineers, political scientists, information technologies experts, sociologists, and urban planners.
3) A Central Role in the Education–Research Nexus
Lab’Urba is composed entirely of researchers who also teach and who are affiliated with:
The Paris School of Urban Planning (École d’Urbanisme de Paris, UGE-UPEC),
The City of Paris School of Engineering (École des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris) and its Urban Engineering Department (UGE),
The Geography Department at UPEC,
The INSPE and the IUT (in IT and civil engineering fields) at UPEC,
Two doctoral research schools and three graduate programmes.
This structure positions Lab’Urba at the heart of both initial training and research-based education.
4) A Laboratory Committed to Social Relevance
Since its founding, Lab’Urba has pursued a dual commitment to academic excellence and societal engagement. This scientific policy has earned the lab wide recognition for its social utility and its support role for public policy, civil society, and socio-economic actors.